Merle Dixon's Angel
by LilOCDnerd
Summary: When Merle Dixon was handcuffed to that rooftop someone had been watching him and his group, and when they left him for dead that someone came and saved him, just as he was yelling at the heavens for help. Now Merle Dixon will do anything for the strange little angel that saved his life.


Authors Note: This is just a crossover Idea I had between Harry Potter and Walking Dead. Yes I made Harry a girl, and yes I know its kind of unorganized for the first chapter but let me know what your think and if I should keep going.

Chapter 1

Harriet Jamie Potter sighed looking up from the binoculars she shook her head. When the dead started to walk she had been in the U.S. tracking an escaped death eater, and when the muggle government fell so did the magical government and with it all long distance travel that included portkeys. While her magical skills had progressed vastly over a wide variety of magic's, making a portkey was not one of them, so she was stuck in the U.S. as aparating across oceans was impossible even for her.

So she did what she did best, helping others while destroying any threats, which meant the undead that now over populated the living. At the moment she was in a skyscraper next to some department store in Atlanta, Georgia. She had been watching a group of people over at the department store scavenging for supplies, she knew they wouldn't find much she had taken most of it already storing it in her bottomless bag. She was going to leave them be and continue on her way collecting supplies but once she saw them get cornered in the building she stuck around, just to make sure they made it. After all, in this world every life mattered.

After several hours what looked like a cop road in on a horse, which he stupidly got cornered allowing a feeding frenzy to take place on his horse while he fired off his gun attracting every undead for miles. An Asian kid had helped him escape his morbid fate only to get him and the rest of the group even furthered trapped in the building adjacent from her. Over the next couple hours, she was quiet surprised as they managed to form a plan of escape, using a car alarm in one car to pull the walkers away while another vehicle picked up the group of survivors in the department store before driving away.

What had her shaking her head in disappointment was that they had left a man handcuffed to the roof. She had been watching them from the start, so she knew the man was a typical racist redneck American, and a druggie on top of it, too stuck in his white man ideology to change, but leaving him handcuffed to a roof with no means of getting free, no water or food. Well she wouldn't even do that to Voldemort, and that was saying something because she killed him with no remorse.

That left her with the decision of helping the man or not, on the one hand she couldn't just leave him to rot, or be torn apart by the undead. On the other while she was all for helping people the only way she'd be able to reach and help him is with magic, and as far as she could tell he was a muggle. While there was no government left to arrest her for using magic in front of a muggle, most muggles still reacted negatively to experiencing magic. It didn't help that she could just see the muggles blaming magic for the dead walking, after all it was easy to point the unexplained at other unexplained things. Plus, it was common knowledge that what muggles feared most was the unexplained/unnatural.

Deciding to wait a while, till she could come up with a better idea than aparating in front of the man, she sat back on the couch she had found. Who knows maybe the guys would get lucky and be able to break the rusty bar he was handcuffed to and she wouldn't have to help the redneck.

As the day progressed she watched as the temperature rose, and the humidity didn't help, although if she felt hot she wondered how he felt. Picking up the binoculars again she gazed out at the rooftop adjacent from her, wincing when she saw his sunburnt blistering skin. Sighing she cursed under her breath, knowing she couldn't continue to leave him out there for much longer. Turning on her feet she apparated, reappearing just feet from the redneck, before he had time to even register her appearance she hit him with a stun spell knocking him out.

Looking him over she shook her head, "Don't make me regret this." She said to him even though he was knocked out and wouldn't hear this statement. Walking over to him she waved her hand at the cuffs, with a soft click they opened and fell to the ground freeing his now very raw wrist. Casting a feather-light charm on the man she grabbed him by his good wrist and pulled him up over her shoulder. If anyone had seen she was sure it made for a pretty interesting sight her carrying some 150-something pound man over her shoulder, while she weighed barley 98 pounds at a short height of 5'0".

Turning on her feet she apparated them back to the room she was just in, tossing the man down on the couch that occupied the room. Looking him over she grabbed his hand with the raw wrist, reaching into her bottomless bag she summoned a healing salve to help speed up the process on his wrist. After casting a cleaning charm on the wrist to rid it of any dirt to prevent infection she rubbed the salve on his wrist smiling softly when she saw the salve already fizzing up and working its magic. Pulling some bandages from her bag she gently wrapped up his wrist tightly, before leaning back to study her work. Nodding in satisfaction she put the salve back in her bag and summoned some muggle Aloe-Vera to sooth his blistered sunburnt skin. Casting another cleaning charm on the man's skin she rubbed some aloe onto his blistered skin.

Finally done she got up pulling a couple of water bottles, and some granola bars from her bag she placed them within arm's reach of him on the coffee table, leaving the Aloe-Vera out as well. Walking to the other side of the room she sat up on the ledge of the window sill, removing the stun spell she waited for him to wake up on his own while she gazed out the window at all the undead below. While she waited she started thinking of ways to deal with mass numbers of undead.

Cutting hexes worked nicely on a couple of dead, but a crowd of them, not so much. She could cast fiendfyre but it was hard to control and even for magical fire it took a while to burn threw the skull to the brain, so that could just temporarily give the dead a deadly fire bonus before finally falling. She had actually found that using a levitation charm on a bullet worked nicely allowing her to launch the bullet through multiple skulls killing many at once, but of course after the 7th or 8th skull it bullet would start to fragment and break apart.

Hearing a grunt, she glanced over seeing the redneck slowly come too, she just gazed back out the window. From her own experiences she found it was easier on the mind and body to take in new surrounding on your own when waking up in a new place, she would wait for him to address her.

Once he had awakened a bit more he snapped up in a sitting position looking around wildly, no doubt believing that he was still cuffed to the roof, and was afraid one of the undead was about to get him. From the corner of her eye she watched as he started to take in his surroundings, noticing the bandages on his wrist, she could see his breathing start to even out. Spotting the bottled water, he wasted no time in ripping off the cap and downing one bottle in seconds, and was half way through the second bottle before he slowed down. Seeing the granola he put the bottle down tearing into the first bar and groaning in what seemed pleasure as he inhaled the bar taking little time to chew.

After several minutes he finally started to gaze around the room, spotting her sitting on the window ledge. She watched as he tensed up as he took her in, a good reaction to have in times like this. As he took in her appearance she could see him slowly relaxing, probably already underestimating her cause of her small size and stature.

Finally, after several moments he spoke, "Where am I? How'd I get here?" he said his voice a bit hoarse probably from all the screaming he did. She glanced over at him then back to the window motioning with her hand to the rooftop he had previously been tied too.

"You're in the building across from the rooftop I found you tied too. It wasn't very nice of your friends to leave you for dead, even if you were being an asshole." She said watching him look over at the building before scowling at her.

"They ain't my friends, we were just at the same camp together." He spat out viciously thinking back on the ones who left him for dead. "How long have I been out?" He asked taken another drink of water.

"Not long. Just enough that I was able to get you over here and bandage up that wrist of yours. If you had yanked any harder on those cuffs you could have cut an artery." She commented gesturing towards his bandaged wrist.

"How'd you get me over here in the first place, girly? Way I see it, tiny little thing like you, there ain't no way that you carried me across a walker filled street and up a dozen flight of stairs to this room." He said eye balling her waiting for an answer.

Sighing she looked over at him, "Does it matter? Your alive, and free from that rooftop. Isn't that enough?" she asked hoping he wouldn't push, she really didn't want to try and explain magic to him, or see if he would react negatively or not the magic.

"No, I guess it don't matter." He said nodding his head, "Suppose your wantin some big thank you or some shit." He huffed out, looking her over again trying to figure it out in his head of how she was able to get him over here.

"No. My friends say I have a 'saving people' thing, if I have it in my ability to help someone I will. It's got me into a lot of trouble in the past, but it not in my nature to leave someone to die. Especially not like how your group of people left you." She said hoping his anger at the people who left him would get his mind off of how she saved him.

Seeing the fire light in his eyes she knew she hit the nail on the coffin, so to speak. "Well where are your people girly? You can't be out here all on your own, your what 16?" He asked looking around trying to spot any sign of other people with her.

"No. It's just me, in case you couldn't tell from my accent, I'm not exactly close to home here." She said, pointing out her British accent to him. "And for the record, I'm 25, I just look young cause of my size and stature." She added upon seeing his disbelief. "So. Now that your free, what are you going to do? I don't exactly see you running back to that group of people who left you for dead."

He grunted in agreement, "Yeah but my kid brother is back at that camp. Plus, I wouldn't mind knocking out a few teeth from that Officer Friendly." He commented, smirking at the image of that officer spitting out a mouth full of teeth. Looking up at her he tilted his head in thought, "What about you? Way I see it; I owe ya one for saving my hide. You could tag along with me back to my camp." He asked surprising even himself, as he was normally a selfish guy, but something about this girl made him want to help and while he would never admit it, he couldn't find it in himself to be his normal crude self to this tiny slip of a girl.

"You mean back to a group of people who would leave a man to die tied to a rooftop like some rabid animal?" she asked sarcasm heavy in her voice, drawing a deep belly laugh from the man.

"Well I may have deserved it." He said still chuckling at her comment, as he grabbed the other granola bar and tearing into it as well.

"You could be the biggest asshole on the planet, hell even a murderer, not no one deserves to be left like you were. A bullet to the brain would have been kinder than leaving you to rot or be torn apart by those flesh eating freaks." She said motioning to the thousands of undead still surrounding the department store.

He found himself nodding his head, if put in that situation again he had to admit taken a bullet to the brain would have been kinder. "Well I can't talk for the rest of the camp, but I owe you one. If you come with me I won't leave you for dead, and neither would my brother. Tell you what, come with me girly I'll watch your back."

"Oh? And what do you expect in return? Cause no offense you're not exactly my type." She said eyeing him up and down.

Drawing another deep belly laugh from the man he shook his head. "Nah ain't nothing like that, normally I wouldn't deny wanting a piece of ass. But even if you are 25 you still look like a kid, besides, like I said. I owe you one." Merle couldn't believe what he was saying, it was true he was a pig when it came to women but for some reason he felt to urge to do right by this tiny slip of a girl.

Nodding her head, she looked back out the window thinking it over. If she did go with him there was no doubt in her mind that he would start asking questions on how she survived this long. After all, in his eyes he would clearly see she had no weapons of supplies of any kind. After all everything she used to survive this far was cause of her magic, all her supplies were in her bottomless bag, and her only weapon was her magic. If he went with him she would have to at least tell him about her magic, if he didn't react badly he could actually help her keep it a secret from the others. Plus, she wouldn't deny, she was getting lonely being by herself all the time with no one to talk to.

Nodding her head again she came to a decision, "Okay, before anything is decided you need to know something, after all it may affect your decision on taking me with you." She said drawing a curious look from him. Before he could say anything she proceeded to tell him everything about magic and the magical world, even showing him some magic as proof.

After her long explanation he sat in silence for several moments taking in everything she said. "So, did magic have anything to do with the dead coming back to life?" he said eyeing her like she may turn him into one of the undead then and there.

"As far as I can tell no. There are spells that allow some dark wizards to manipulate cadavers to protect places or objects, but they are bound to where ever the spell was cast, and they can't turn or infect others living people. Whatever is happening to the dead down there it isn't from magic. If it was I'd be out there trying to find and destroy or reverse the spell. Whatever this is its affecting both the magical and the muggle world." She said watching him carefully for any negative reaction, ready to stun and obliviate the man if she had too.

"And this magic is how you got me off that rooftop?" he asked his body relaxing after accepting that she hadn't caused the dead to come back to life.

"Yes, I used a spell to unlock the cuffs and an ability called aparating that allows one to teleport from one place to another. Given that I can see the place I'm trying to teleport to, or I've been there before. And if it's within a certain distance, for example I can't apparate across and ocean otherwise I'd be at home right now."

Nodding his head, he looked her over, "well as long as you don't cast any spell over me and my brother I don't care if you have magic. Hell you could have wings or horns for all I care." Seeing her sigh in relief he asked again, "so you goanna come with me girly?"

"I'll come with but no one can know about my magic. Most people aren't as accepting to the idea of magic, especially now that the world is ending." She said waiting for him to agree to keep her magic secret.

"Alright, but if your gonna stick with me my brothers gotta know about your little hocus pocus. He'll find out anyhow, I may never say it but he's sharp and knows when I'm lying." He said standing up and stretching a bit.

"Very well. But ONLY your brother. No one else, not until we have to." She said jumping down from the window ledge. "By the way, my name is Harriet. Harriet Potter. Stop calling me girly."

Letting lose another laugh, he held out his hand for her to shake, "Names Merle Dixon, and no guarantees… girly." He added just to spite her.

Scowling with a small smile she shook his hand, "Fine call me girly, I'll call you Ape-Man." She smirked at him when his smile turned into a scowl. "Hey. All is fair in love and war." She said with a laugh. "So which way to your camp?"

"You got guts girly. I like that. The camp is next to a rock quarry just outside of the city." He said pointing in the direction they needed to go from the window. Looking out she nodded her head before looking up at the setting sun.

"Well the sun is setting, they dead seem more active at night we should wait till first light. Rest up, maybe see if there's anything else left to take in this building." She said turning towards the door to the office they were in. "I think there's a break room and the floor above us. Should have some type of vending machines or something."

"Where you gonna store any supplies girly? You don't have anything to carry them with beside that tiny marble bag you have tied to your waist." She looked at him with an eyebrow raise that would have impressed Snape if he was still alive. "Right. Right. Magic." He said remembering that the girl in front of him had that gift.

She chuckled, "It's okay, even I am still amazed at the things magic is capable of." She said with a smile remembering all the times magic surprised her. Placing her hand on the door she pulled the charms she had placed on the door to lock it off allowing them to leave. Opening the door slowly and quietly she peeked out the door looking around the corner for any undead.

"We should probably find you a weapon, your camp may ask questions on how we made it out of the city with no visible weapons." She said leading the way to the stair well so they could ascend to the next floor.

Remembering that the ass who tired him to the roof had dropped that bag full of weapons he smirked at her. "Well that pansy ass that tied me to the roof dropped a bag of guns by the tank he got stuck in. You got some spell that can summon that bag to us?" he asked curious if maybe she could actually do something like that.

"Well actually there is a spell that could bring the bag to us, as long as I can see the bag I should be able to get it." She said with a smile, which cause a grin of his own to spread across his face. "Now we are talking." He said thinking about the reaction officer friendly would have when he showed up with all his guns.

The next couple hours they quickly sweeped the building tossing anything they thought was usefull into her bottomless bag, before going back the office they were in previously. Merle pointed out the gun bag to her from the window, after popping the window open she held her hand out, actually speaking the words of the spell from this distance the spell needed the boost the words would create. "Accio Sheriffs Duffle Bag." She said haven't seen the word Sheriff on the side of the bag. After all she didn't want to summon every duffle bag in the city just the one.

Merle let out a whop of joy and amazement as the bag launched up into the air towards them, and in seconds she was pulling the bag into the office and handing it to Merle. "Here, I never used a muggle gun, wouldn't want to accidently shoot you or something."

Merle shook his head, "We'll have to change that when we get the chance, if you want to blend in with us normal folk you should know how to handle a gun." She nodded in acceptance. Merle set the bag down on the coffee table opening it to take a look at the weapons officer friendly had brought into the city.

While he played with the guns she re-applied the spells to the door locking them in, turning she looked at the desk in the corner, with a wave of her hand it transfigured into a simple bed much like the one she had in her cousins second bedroom. Ignoring Merles stupefied face as he registered that the desk was now a bed, she crawled into the bed. "Night Ape-Man" she said falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, missing Merles chuckle and quiet 'Night Girl' that he had said in reply.

The next morning Harriet woke to the sound of Merle puking in the office trash can by the door. Sitting up she took in his sweaty and shaking appearance, and remembered that he had a drug problem, one in which that officer had thrown his stash. Sitting up she reached into her bag summoning a pepper up potion, and a water bottle.

"Here this will taste like shit, but it will help with the shakes and nausea." She said handing him the poition and water to help drink down the potion and get the taste out of his mouth. "I don't have a spell or potion to help you get over withdraws from your drugs but this should help a bit."

He looked up at her taking the offered potion and water, "You know about the drugs?" he asked amazed that she knew about his habit but still was willing to help him.

"Yes, I had been watching you and your group since you got here. Like I said I have a saving people thing, and I wanted to make sure you and your group made it out of the city. So I saw your little episode, and know that it had a hand in why they handcuffed you." Seeing that he was waiting for him to damn him for being a druggy she quickly added. "Everyone has their vices, I happen to like alcohol, and pot. I may not like the fact that you choose the hard-core drug, but I you won't find me judging you. Or handcuffing you to a roof and leaving you there for it."

Nodding his head he popped the top to the potion and downed it in one go almost puking it right back up from the taste. Quickly downing the water he looked back up at her, and for the first time in a very long time he uttered the words he swore he'd never say to anyone, "Thank you." And he meant it, it was a nice feeling to not be shunned the second a person found out about his habbit, and for her to want to help him further made him want to do right by this littler girl.

Sighing in relief he slowly shook his head in amazement already feeling better, he still had that very familiar itch and need to want more drugs, but she was right, the shakes and nausea were in fact already receding. "Ya know. I am like this magic of yours more and more girly."

"Oh really?" she asked with a smirk, "Well, I'm glad, I would have hated to wipe your memory cause you were afraid of me." She said looking at him laughing at his horrified expression. "You can really do that? Wipe my memory?" he asked horrified of the implications. "Yes, part of my training as a Auror, a magical cop basically, is learning how to erase memories, so in the event of magic being used in front of a muggle we can wipe their memory of the event and they can go about their day never remembering their run in with a magical being."

"Wait. Wait." He said holding up his had completely forgetting the previous topic. "You're a cop?" he asked resentment filling his voice.

"An Auror. I'm a Magical Cop, meaning I am a cop of magical things, so don't worry, I only enforce my 'cop powers' on other magical beings." She said chuckling at his relieved expression. "Come on, Ape-man, daylight is wasting and I'm sure your brother would like to know your still alive."

Heading to the window she looked out towards the edge of the city. "I can apparate us right to the city edge so we can avoid the undead, but we'd have to walk the rest of the way to your camp." She said looking back at him, upon seeing his uneasy expression she sighed. "Unless you want to try and make your way through the horde of undead down there, this is the quickest and easiest way out of the city. I promise its perfectly safe, just feels really, really uncomfortable."

Sighing he through the bag of guns over his shoulder keeping a handgun in his hand loaded and ready just in case. "Fine but if I am missing anything when we reappear you better be able to magically reattach it." Drawing a laugh from her.

Holding out her hand she grabbed his arm, "just breath normally, it helps." Waiting a minute till she could see his breathing even out she nodded, before quickly adding, "Besides I haven't lost a limb yet." Turning on her feet she apparated them just as he registered her comment and a horrified look crossed his face.

Reapearing just outside of the city she fell to the floor laughing when Merle yanked away from her with a girly scream, patting down his whole body checking for any missing parts. When he found none he glared down at her. "That ain't funny girly." He said a scowl on his face.

"Oh come on." She said in between laughs. "You have to admit, that was a little funny." Seeing that his expression hadn't changed she shook her head, "Alright fine, im sorry. Happy?" She said still chuckling every once in a while.

He huffed and stalked off in the direction of the quarry. "Oh come on Merle, I was just messing with you." She called after him, running to catch up. Together they slowly followed the highway out of the city.

After about an hour she turned to him, "So. Favorite food?" she asked gaining a curious expression from the man next to her. "What? It seems like we have long walk ahead of us might as well take the time to get to know each other better. So, whats your favorite food?" she asked again.

Getting a grunt in reply he shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. Pizza I guess. You?" he asked looking over at her. She tilted her head to the side in deep thought. "My friend's mom, Mrs. Weasley was the best cook I ever knew, she would make this fudge and send it to us for Christmas at school. I swear she ruined fudge for me, no fudge could ever taste as good as hers." She said with a smile.

"Sounds like a nice woman." He said getting a nod of agreement from her, upon seeing her sad and worried face no doubt thinking about her friend and family back home he quickly asked her a different question to get her mind off of it. "What's your favorite sport? Wait don't tell me, soccer right? All you damn brits love that game. Or as you would call it _football._ "

Laughing she shook her head, "Actually it is a magical sport called Quidditch. Its played in the air on broomsticks and it's kind of like basketball, football, sorry soccer, and rugby all mixed into one."

"Hold on, you mean to tell me, you magical folk actually do fly on brooms?" he asked the image of the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz popped into his head. At her nod he shook his head, "next your gonna tell me dragons and the chupacabra is real."

"Actually..." she said causing him to stop and look at her, "Your kidding?" with a shake of her head she laughed, "While I'm not sure if chupacabras are actually real, dragons sure are. And they are as big and fire breathing as they ever were described in your stories. Most are on reservations protected by magic in Romania." Shaking his head, he tried to wrap his head around the fact that actual fire breathing dragons existed. For the next several hours they traded questions, to pass the time.

About half a mile from the exit they would take to the rock quarry they heard the sound of a truck approaching. Quickly they hid, just in case whoever was coming was not friendly, spotting a familiar white van with a red logo on the side she nudged Merle. "Hey that's the truck your group escaped on. Maybe it's your brother."

Nodding he handed her the bag of guns, "Here you take these just in case if it isn't them do your magic." Seeing her agree he stood up and walked into the line of sight of the van waving his arms to signal the van. Seeing Merle the van quickly turned heading their way pulling to a stop not to far from Merle he growled out recognizing the china man, and the black man that dropped the cuff key down the drain. Before he could start curseing he heard a familiar voice shout out from the back to the van.

Emerging from the back to the van and heading towards him quickly was none other than his brother. "Well well well, if it ain't my kid brother, come to save me huh?" He said giving his brother a 'manly' hug and a firm pat on the back.

"Damn Merle, thought you was handcuffed to some roof, how'd you get out?" he asked looking him over taking in his sunburnt skin and bandaged wrist.

"I was, then a little birdy came along and was able to pick the lock on the cuffs, as well as bandaged me up. Together we were making our way back to camp." Seeing him look around for the little birdy he turned and called out, "Come on out girly. It's safe."

Harriet slowly walked out from behind the car she was ducked behind, shouldering the duffle bag of weapons a little better she walked up to Merle stopping by his side smiling up at Daryl. "You must be Darylina," she said using Merle's nickname for Daryl getting a large belly laugh from Merle and a scowl from Daryl. "Ape-man here has told me a lot about you in the short time we've been together." She said causing Merles laugh to cut short being replaced with his own scowl, while Daryl's scowl turned into his own smirk.

"You saved my brother?" Daryl asked looking her up and down trying to figure out how his tiny little girl got his brother free and acting actually nice to her.

"Sure did. I was watching your group when the left him on that rooftop to die." She said causeing both brothers to scowl again. "They may have been okay leaving him to rot but I wasn't okay with that. Not even a rabid animal deserved that."

"Speaking of which look who it is. If it isn't china man, officer friendly, and the nig-." Harriet smacked Merle in the stomach before he could call the man a nigger. "I get that your pissed Merle, but don't use words like that around me. When I'm not in hearing range you can let loose just not in front of me." She said thinking to Hermione and her mom and the term Mudblood being slapped with them.

Scowling down at her he snapped, "Fine. The pansy-ass bitch that droped the damn key and left me to die. Better?" he asked looking down at her for approval. "Much." She nodded with a smile.

Shaking his head with a smirk he looked back over at the three who left him to die. "I ain't got an issue with you china man, but I got a bone to pick with officer friendly and pansy-ass." He said stalking towards them. The officer holding his hand up in a sign of peace.

"Now hold on let's talk about this with a level head here. There's no need for violence." Officer Friendly said in what seemed to be his cop voice, he obviously said that a lot as a cop.

"What's there to talk about, you hand cuffed me to a roof, and you dropped the damn key, then all of y'all left me for dead. Way I see it I deserve a little compensation for my suffering." Merle said clenching his fists.

"Look, we were coming back for you, we weren't going to leave you there to di-." He started to say before Harriet butted in.

"It doesn't matter if you were coming back or not, the building you were in was getting over run by the undead and you just left him there. If I hadn't set him free the dead would have busted through that door you poorly locked with that chain and instead of rescuing a man you would have been going back for what was left of his body after the dead torn him apart." She said looking at them with disgust. "I wouldn't wish that fate on my worst enemy." She spat at them.

Officer Friendnly finally took in the extra person next to Merle carrying a familiar bag. "My guns, you got-." He took a step forward only for Merle to shove him back. "Uh-uh boy. You left me for dead, way I see it them guns is ours now. What makes you think im just gonna hand um over to you?" he said pulling his gun from his pants and holding it at his side.

Before he could make a reply Harriet stepped forward placing a hand on him arm, "How about we make a compromise. Way I see it, you owe Merle for leaving him to rot, and for use grabbing your precious guns." She looked up at Merle, "So you want these guns back and Merle to not beat the shit out of you. Then we get to pick 3 guns from this bag, any guns our choice, one for me, Merle and his brother here. Then you can have your precious guns back and we wont fight you for leaving Merle to rot. Deal?" she asked looking up at Merle for agreement, ignoring the protest on the other three's faces.

Merle was torn on the one hand he really wanted to knock some teeth out, but if he did he knew that he wouldn't be able to keep any of the guns they retrieved, and he did promise to teach Harriet how to shoot. "Fine by me, but lets make one thing clean here. You mess with me and mine again, I'll gut you like a fish. Comprendo, Officer Friendly?" He said getting right in his face.

Seeing that he was about to argue she spoke again, "I would take the offer, you won't be getting a better one." She said adjusting the bag a little higher on her shoulder again. Seeing that she was probably right he nodded his head slowly.

"Alright, fine. Deal. Look for what its worth, we were coming back…" he tried to say hoping to pacify the situation a little more. Merle shook his head and shoved past him. "Save it, I just wanna get back to camp, and get me and girly here settle. Come on Girly."

Harriet took off the duffle bag tossed it into the officer's hands. "Names Harriet. And if you ever handcuff me to a roof and leave me, you better hope I die on that roof top." She said viciously, glaring at the other too as well. "You too are not much better." She snapped following after Merle, to the back of the van and hoping up into it. Taking a seat next to Merle she rested her head on his shoulder, after spending the last day and a half with the man she felt like he was an older brother.

Merle looked down at Harriet and smiled softly, before wipeing it from his face he couldn't let his brother think he was going soft. "Well? Come on. Lets go!" Merle shouted waiting for the other to get back in the van and head back to the quarry.

Daryl was the first back in the van sitting across from Merle taking in the sight of the girl leaning on his brother like she had known him for years. "Merle. What happened? Who is this little bit clinging to ya like some lost puppy?" he growled out.

"She ain't no puppy Darylina. She saved my life, and she'll be sticking with us. I owe her, and promised to watch her back if she came with us. She's part of our family now, she ain't got no one else." Merle said, the decided to try and keep her story and background as vague as possible as to avid to many questions as they walked.

Nodding his head, he took the time to study the girl a little more. She was a tiny thing, couldn't way more than 100 pounds if he had to guess. She had long wild black hair pulled into a messy bun, her skin was pale like she didn't get much sun, tinted slightly pink probably from walking so far. Dressed in a simple black tank top and blue jeans she didn't look like much at all, but she did have a shapely body, not that he was looking mind you.

Finally the others climbed into the van, Officer friendly in the drivers seat, whom he still didn't know the name of. T-dog slid into the passenger seat, and Glenn hopped in the back with them taking a seat closest to the seats up front. Glenn and t-dog looked at Merle taking in the sight of the little girl napping on his shoulder trying to remember if they had ever seen Merle act nice or friendly to anyone.

The drive back was silent for a while before Glenn finally broke the silence, "So how did she find you?" he asked hoping Merle wouldn't bite his head off for asking. Merle glanced up looking over at Glenn seeing him, T-dog, Officer Friendly, and Daryl all looking at him waiting for an answer.

He chuckled, "She had actually been watching us the whole time we were there from the building across from us. She was by herself, and wasn't sure if we were good people or not so just was just watching." Looking down at her he couldn't help the small smirk that crossed his face. "When you all left me there to rot she didn't take to kindly to that. Says she has a 'Saving People' thing, cause several hours after you left she comes crawling out from the other side of the building and offered me some water and food while she picked the lock on the cuffs."

He lied, he could see his brother already could tell he was lying but he knew better that to call him out on it in front of the others. "She brought me back to the little office she had barricaded herself in. Seeing as she was by herself and I owed her for saving my life, I offered her to come back with me, and well here we are."

Feeling the van coming to a stop, he nudged her awake, "Eh, Girly. We're here." He said standing up and offering his hand to get her up as well. Opening the back of the van he was greeted with the sight of the rock quarry camp and the relieved faces of everyone though he knew the faces weren't relived to see him. Hoping down from the truck he turned to help Harriet down, she humored him by letting him help her down. Turning to officer friendly, "I want the smallest handgun in that bag, as well as a shotgun and a rifle to replace the one you took from me. You can bring em by my tent after we get settled."

Turning he motioned for Harriet to follow him, "Come on out tents this way." He said leading the way as her and Daryl followed.


End file.
